Traffic Safety in Grande Prairie is accomplished through a policing partnership with the RCMP and Enforcement Services. Both of these agencies work together in a strategic approach with the intent of reducing collisions in the City.
Grande Prairie Detachment completed an analysis of statistics to provide "benchmark" data for Transport Canada's Road Safety Vision 2010 project. This included a comprehensive review of all injury and fatality collisions in the City. As a result of this analysis, the primary contributing factors were identified as:
- Speed;
- Alcohol;
- Occupant Restraints; &
- Intersection Offences.
In fact, 89% of injury/fatality collisions that occur in Grande Prairie occur at an intersection. Several key intersections appear to be the greatest concern.
Grande Prairie Detachment is committed to carrying out strategic Selective Traffic Enforcement Programs (STEP) to address these issues and reduce collisions.
Statistically, the currentl trend is that total number of collisions to stay at about the 2002 levels. Having said this, traffic volumes in Grande Prairie has increased substantially. Therefore, in relation to the number of vehicles on our City streets, the ratio of the number of collisions to the number of vehicles on the road has in fact decreased!
In March 2004, Enforcement Services completed a Traffic Safety Plan (revised in March 2010) which outlines our traffic enforcement strategy in more detail. Following are some of the actions that our department is taking to further address collisions, especially injury and fatality collisions in our City:
- Enforcement Services is a partner with the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance and officers will be trained in and carryout commercial vehicle inspections;
- Photo radar will be used in high risk locations such as school/playground zones, areas of community concern, areas with history of collisions, and areas where conventional means of enforcement are unsafe;
- Red light cameras are being utilized at 7 intersections throughout the City;
- Use of STEP projects will be to target high risk driving activities and correlate to both Provincial and local concerns,
- Operation Traffic Watch program can be used to help people in our community to report driving violations that they observe, and;
- Public awareness through the media is also key factor to success in changing driving habits.
As well, the City's Transportation Services ensure safe streets and roadways through maintenance and engineering. Transportation Engineering has a webpage that outlines several of the frequently asked questions on traffic signals, roadways, etc.
For more information on traffic safety in Grande Prairie, please call (780) 830-5790.
